MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 



223 



at the ends of the branches and are surrounded by large 

 involucres of prickly bracts. 



Every traveller knows that the Thistle is the national floral 

 emblem of Scotland, and has been ever since that day when 

 a barefoot Danish soldier, stepping inadvertently upon its 

 spines, gave a cry of pain which aroused the sleeping Scot- 

 tish camp and saved Scotland. The motto which Scotsmen 

 affix to this flower is ^'Nemo me impinie lacessit'' (No one 

 touches me with impunity), or in the vernacular, " Ye maun't 

 meddle wi' me." And assuredly we are quite content to leave 

 it alone in its prickly glory, only pausing a moment in passing 

 to admire its fine richly coloured flowers. 



BROOK LOBELIA 



Lobelia Kabnii. Lobelia Family 



Stems: leafy, glabrous, paniculately branched. Leaves: lower ones 

 spatulate, obtuse, almost entire; upper ones sessile, linear, acute. Flowers: 

 in loose racemes ; calyx-tube turbinate, hemispheric, lobes lanceolate ; 

 corolla-tube straight, oblique, divided to the base on one side, two-lipped, 

 irregularly five-lobed. 



Those who are familiar with the cultivated garden species 

 of Lobelia will easily recognize the mountain Brook Lobelia, 

 which usually grows at the extreme edge of a stream, or 

 half immersed in some warm wet swamp, where its grass-like 

 stems, bearing their racemes of sky-blue blossoms, spring up 

 in Uttle companies amongst the water- weeds, the Butterworts, 

 and the Fly-spotted Orchis. 



HAREBELL 



Campanula rotundifolia. Campanula Family 



Stems: slender, erect, simple or branched. Leaves: basal ones orbic- 

 ular or broadly ovate to cordate; cauline ones sessile, linear. Flowers: 

 buds erect on slender pedicels, flowers drooping or spreading ; corolla 

 campanulate, five-lobed. 



